


Losing Park Place

by hariboo



Category: Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21822472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: Mad Rogan has just lost Park Place to Lina. See you soon.
Relationships: Nevada Baylor/Connor "Mad" Rogan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Losing Park Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theepiccek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theepiccek/gifts).



> HAPPY YULETIDE FRIEND!!! I hope you like it! I wish I could have worked in work more of the game night tbh but I couldn't get the words out.

There was a moment where I really considered all my choices that got me to this moment. Meeting Rogan, letting him in, finding out who my other grandmother is, bringing the rest of my family into the mess that is Prime politics, and ultimately choosing to love someone who was more dangerous and frustrating than all of the above. I wondered in that moment if I should have made different choices. I wonder what it would have been like if Dad had lived longer. I wondered all of that in the split second I opened the door to the building and heard the tale tell click of a landmine going off. 

I knew in that moment that Dad living longer wouldn’t have really changed anything and that I still would have made every choice I did the same involving Rogan. Maybe I would have double checked this warehouse for booby traps. A rookie mistake. 

I turned as fast as I could in that moment and tried to put as much distance between me and that door. 

Then the building blew up and I was thrown 10 feet back, slamming into the side of my car. I landed hard against the metal and felt my cheek catch on the on the edge of the door when I slid down after the impact.

Rogan was gonna be pissed as hell. 

Worse yet, my family were going to be worried. 

Those were the thoughts ringing in my head even I stood up and checked my surroundings. My instincts told me the area was deserted, and so did the surveillance I had Bern do before hand, but I still pulled out my gun and bit back a groan of pain. My side was going to be bruised to all hell come tomorrow, but my face and hair weren’t on fire, so I felt like calling it a win. The explosion could have been a lot worse, a lot more powerful. The blast radius was focused inward from the door and from what I could tell with my ears ringing to hell and back, it had been more of deterrent and distraction than anything else. There wasn’t anyone coming from the nearby buildings. 

From the looks it the door had protected me from the worst of it. It was in pieces in front of me. I could see smoke and flames from the inside of the building. Any information I could have found there was lost. That was annoying as fuck.

Maybe once I would have pushed through the pain and walked into a smouldering building for a case. Part of me still wanted to, but I had to think of everyone waiting for me at home for Baylor Family Game Night. I had told them I’d be home soon, that I was just going to quickly check warehouse that had come up on the list of our current client’s business manager and main suspect for the embezzlement. Mr. Business Manager’s circumstantial shadiness had just upgraded itself to incredibly suspect. And not only did the family need to know about this for our case file, but if I didn’t make it home in an hour my youngest sister would send out my fiancé like a hunting dog to find him. And scariest yet, he would do it. 

Mad Rogan, the scariest, most badass Dual Prime in the world would absolutely bend completely to a chirpy blonde fifteen-year-old who has no fear just because he loved me that much. And I loved him, which is why I hauled my ass into my car, biting my lip at all my muscles protesting and pulled up the assistant driver for the car. I fucking hate using the assistive controls for the cars, but it was moments like these Connor insisted we install them on all the Baylor family cars. Plugging in the address for the warehouse me and family call home, I hissed and flipped down the driver’s mirror. 

I’m not a vain person, but I was just slammed into a car headfirst. Thankfully, there was no broken skin, but my lip was already swelling up and I could see bits of gravel and dirt in my hair.

There’d be no hiding this. 

Cursing, I leaned back into the seat and let the car guide me home. 

\--

I knew I should have called, but I really didn’t want to add to my already growing headache. Bern had messaged me asking how it was going halfway home. I responded: _it was a bust, I’ll fill you in when I get back. How’s everyone?_

Three minutes later I got back:

_Mad Rogan has just lost Park Place to Lina. See you soon._

I snorted. Catalina was what most people would call an angel, the gentlest of us Baylor women, that is until you get her in front of a board game. Clue? Monopoly? Forget about it. She had a shrewdness to get that I hate to admit may have been inherited. I may have gotten Victoria Tremaine’s power, but I could see her patient, calculating mind in my sister. Most people would see this as insult, even me once upon a time, but I tried not to lie to anyone, especially myself, and I could see it be the asset it was. It helped that Lina’s heart was a soft and cuddly as a baby rabbit. She would use that mind to protect our family as fiercely as I would and have used my power, but she’d never use it to be outwardly cruel. She couldn’t and it would hurt her to be so.

Turning into our road, I took a deep breath and prayed I’d survive the hurricane that was coming at me in the form of my family. 

It would be no use in trying to sneak in so I didn’t. I moved slowly, my body aching, my pride pretty bruised and made my way to the kitchen were everyone would be huddled around the table. I could imagine them all. Mom and Grandma Frida arguing about how Grandma Frida handles the Bank, Lina smiling smugly over her small empire, Arabella irritated for the same reason, Leon looking for ways to con Lina and sweet talk Grandma Frida, and Bern calculating his next move to buy Lina out. Of course, there was another person to add into that picture. Conor Rogan, the scariest motherfucker this side of the Rio Grande and probably the other as well. 

He’d never would have been invited to the Baylor Family Game Night if not for me, and he never would have shown his face in it either except I asked. Then I told everyone I’d be a little late because I wanted to check out a warehouse really quickly. Everyone in this house trusted each other implicitly and trusted in each other’s skill. My family was confident in the fact that I could handle myself and that I’d come home safe, always. They trusted that if I felt I needed back up I would have asked. That if I got hurt, I’d call them. Well, I was about screw that. 

I knew they were getting worried and trying to hide it. Ever since we got House status things had become more complicated in a way I hadn’t been prepared off. We still, thankfully, were barely into the three-year period where no other House could touch us as we established ourselves. There would be no trouble from that side of things for a while, but still needed to make money, I still needed to take care of my family, and as head of the House a lot of the responsibility rested on my shoulders. Arabella was still young, and could only do so much, while Catalina was trying to step up and more than once she had spoken to me about doing more, but she was still finishing high school. 

At least, that was I was telling myself. 

Fact of the matter was, and Rogan and I had more than one conversation about it: it was hard for me to push my baby sisters and the rest of my family into this world full of House politics. He argued we me that I was doing too much and I told him to shut his trap and that I could handle it. 

“I know you can,” he told me just the other night, pulling his jeans on as he climbed out of bed, “but you can also admit that it might be exhausting you. They’re your sisters, they’ll want to help you.”

“They’re babies,” I said, rolling over to my back, draping an arm over my eyes.

I felt Rogan come closer and sit next to me. He gently pulled my arm from my face and looked down at me. God, he was beautiful and all mine. I _was_ exhausted, but I wanted to pull him down and have him roll around in bed with me… again. He smirked, probably reading the barely hidden desire on my face, then leaned down and gave me a hard kiss. I arched into it like a cat. 

When he pulled away, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “They’re really not. Arabella is a wild card, but she’s fearless. And Catalina is smart, she can handle being your second if you let her.”

I sighed and pushed at him to let me up from the bed. “I’ll think about it.”

That was two nights ago. 

Maybe it was time to think about it.

I walked into the kitchen and… three…two…one…

“Nevada!”

My name came from all sides. Rogan was next to me, cupping my face in a blink of an eye. Park Place was forgotten and I could see Lina moved to where we kept the First Aid Kit. My mother was crowding my vision next to Rogan.

I slumped into his arms, secretly thankful that I didn’t have hold myself my any longer. Leaning my face into that perfect rock-hard chest, I sighed. “I’m fine, just banged up.”

“What happened?” growled Rogan.

“The warehouse was booby trapped.”

“Fuck,” I heard Bern mutter from behind the wall that was my mother and Rogan. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room, mostly probably to get his computer and pour over every single detail he could find about that warehouse and who owned it. Mom tilted my face to her and looked into my eyes. She was checking for a concussion. I was pretty sure I had a mild one. 

Together they tugged me to Lina’s empty chair and Arabella and Leon had shoved the game off to one side so Lina could set up our first aid kit. Military grade, courtesy of Rogan’s private army. 

I felt my grandmother move around us and gently stroke my hair before she moved to make coffee. Mom began checking me over, Rogan hoovering over her like a pit bull. When he huffed as she touched my cheeked and I hissed, she shooed him back. 

Leon and Arabella snickered as Rogan moved back, but my attention was on Lina next to me and mom. She was twisting her hands into her cardigan. She always did that when she was worried or nervous. She’d been doing it all her life. I knew my sister well, so I knew that she was thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong in the warehouse, on the ride over, even now as mom was checking me over. All because when she asked to come with me, I told her it’d be okay. I wanted to tell her that when she’d offer to come along with me, I’d say yes. 

I reached over and took her hand instead. Lina clenched my fingers so tightly. 

All I could picture was Lina and Arabella, so small and scared when Dad was sick. Arabella crying in my arms and Lina unable to sleep with anxiety. They were my baby sisters. I’d always try to keep them safe and protected. I would have wanted Catalina with me in that car to that warehouse even less now, knowing what had happened when I opened the door. What if had been her? What if it had been Arabella? 

No, Rogan was wrong. They weren’t ready for this side of the job yet. Maybe one day, but right now I had to keep them safe. I had to make sure our House was steady. One day Catalina would be ready to be my second and Arabella right there alongside her, but right now they weren’t ready. 

Over my mother’s shoulder, I saw Rogan meet my eyes and saw only love and support and a fierce desire to make sure whoever booby trapped that warehouse pay. For now, it was all I could ask for. They had messed up Baylor Family Game Night, they were really on my shit list right now.


End file.
